Independent Geologist's Report

If you are interested in mineral exploration and I dare say many people are not, especially for uranium, and you want to read my appraisal of tenements held by UXA Resources, then you can find and download my report at the following address:

https://flinders.academia.edu/AlanWatchman

The company is awaiting approval of its Prospectus so it can relist on the ASX and raise capital to fund exploration on two highly prospective tenements in the N.T.


My other academic papers are also listed at the academia website.

New novel

I've begun writing my next novel.  The idea has been developing for many months and I've completed research into the plot, locations and characters.  Formulated on truth I am fictionalizing the characters while maintaining the threads of locations and plot so as to reduce the likelihood of legal action.

A clue to the story line comes from thinking about recent geopolitical events involving the Middle East and negotiations aimed at minimizing the development of nuclear weapons in Iran.  I don't want to say any more at the moment because I am aware the theme will be attractive to other writers.  Advertising the facts now will likely turn my story into ownership by somebody else and I would prefer releasing the sensational facts myself.

I remember watching the movie Argo and thinking how incredible it was keeping the actions and personnel secret for so long.  Wasn't it a sensational film?  The story I am telling is in a similar vein and I am excited by the facts I discovered by accident while undertaking research into another related topic.  I am aiming to complete the first draft by the end of this year unless I am distracted by other interesting things.

Chert, silcrete, silicified sandstone and other hard siliceous rocks

Archaeologists have identified chert artefacts at sites along the Murray River in the Loxton-Renmark area of South Australia.  The question of using the correct rock name arises because geological formations in that area are not described with chert as a rock type.  Recently I visited sites of commercial quarries where silicified and ferruginised sandstone is quarried.  Those sites are in Loxton Sands, a formation containing sands and not chert.  For Aboriginal people to have obtained 'chert' for use as stone tools the hard siliceous rocks must have been exposed at the surface, in eroding creeks or along cliff faces.  This is now a new research project; finding sources of hard siliceous rocks and correctly naming the rock types.

Brisbane Library

Multiple copies of Love in War have been purchased by the Brisbane Library so now Queensland readers can learn about a Rockhampton nurse during WWI.

In November I will be launching Love in War at the Rockhampton library during their Meet the Author program.  So, if you are in the Rockhampton area please reserve the 25th November and come and see me, I'd like to meet you.

In “Love in War” (published by Xlibris)  author Alan Watchman creates an immersive and touching love story  that  shows the heroism of  nurses during the chaotic battles of World War I.

The diaries and letters of Sister Catherine "Cissy" Black, a Rockhampton nurse during World War I, provide the basis for this romantic novel. Her personal story reveals insights into the hardships and suffering endured by nurses in hospitals and soldiers wounded in the trenches of Gallipoli. Cissy is one of thousands of nurses who volunteered and served their country but whose personal experiences have rarely been told.

It shows how she attends to the horrific wounds of Private Michael Fitzhubert in Egypt after he is stretchered from Quinn's Post and keeps him alive. Typical of many nurses, she falls in love, but their relationship does not run smoothly after he recovers in England.

“Love in War” captures  the sheer brutality of trench warfare and gives readers a whole new appreciation of the circumstances in which nurses were employed, of their working conditions and of the lack of recognition by the military and general population at the war's end.

“Love in War”

By Alan Watchman

Hardcover | 6x9 in | 166 pages | ISBN 9781499033328

Softcover | 6x9 in | 166 pages | ISBN 9781499033342

E-Book | 166 pages | ISBN 9781499033373

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Solstice

Yesterday I submitted Solstice at Flinders Cove to Pan Macmillan for consideration for publication. 

The synopsis.

The discovery of a man's body at an ocean lookout in the exclusive housing resort of Flinders Cove, near Port Lincoln perplexes his partner and residents; however the police initially consider his death as a suicide.  Geologist Mark Altree, holidaying with his partner Sonja Nielsen and staying with the caretaker of the resort, is not convinced. He probes for evidence into a death he increasingly regards as suspicious.   The mystery deepens when Drew Addison, an old friend of Altree's is found at the base of the same cliff. Altree and the collaborating caretaker employ devious methods to untangle the threads of these complex murders involving jealousy, betrayal, homosexuality, and corruption. Altree’s amateur detective adventure follows on from his previous success in solving an earlier murder mystery within an exploration company in Queensland in Yarraman Gold.